When the World Turns Cold
by TARDISTraveller
Summary: Bill and the Doctor go on a little adventure to forget about all of the bad news Earth has been dishing out lately. But what they find is a society just as damaged and just as damaging. Beyond the safety of the TARDIS, is there any kindness?
1. Chapter 1

Chapter One

Chemistry. That's what the lesson was today. Thermochemistry, to be exact. Energy and heat and work and all that. Temperature changes.

But who could think of all of that when it felt like the world was ending?

Nuclear weapons. Hatred. War. Taunts and anger and pain. That's all they played on the news these days. Bill couldn't remember a time when the news wasn't all bad.

She found the old wooden door that usually brought so much excitement. Today she hardly smiled.

It was a sucky feeling, really. She wanted to want to learn. She wanted to be so ready for a chemistry lesson; an open textbook and an open mind. Questioning everything.

But all she could question was why leaders couldn't just do their job and bring their people together. Why did there have to be so much division all the time?

"Bill?"

She suddenly realized she was standing in front of the Doctor's desk, staring into thin air. She took her seat, letting the chair slide noisily across the floor, and dropped her bag beside her.

"Sorry," she murmured.

The Doctor nodded and dropped his gaze to his textbook. His fingers drummed a repeating beat on the wood as Bill took out her supplies.

"How was your day?" He asked, his fingers still tapping on the desk.

Bill shrugged, forcing her lips into a tiny smile. "Alright, I guess."

She took a deep breath. The Doctor watched her for a second, and then straightened his back and read over a few notes.

"Thermochemistry today. Good subject. A bit of maths, if that's your thing." He looked back up at her. She was fiddling with her pencil, eyes a bit blank as they stared at the desk. "Bill?"

Her head shot up. "Yeah? Sorry. Can't seem to focus today," she said, adjusting herself in her seat.

The Doctor folded his hands together. "What are you thinking about?"

Bill bit her lip, pausing for a moment. "Doctor," she said. "Are we-humans, I mean. Are we going to make it? I mean, with everything in the news. It just feels like the world's falling apart."

The Doctor let a sad smile flicker across his face. "If it's any consolation, I've met people who lived centuries before you who said the same thing. Most notably, World War Two."

Bill's eyes widened slightly. "Is that what we're heading for, though? World war?"

The Doctor cocked his head to the side, grimacing. "Honestly, I don't know. Time is completely in flux right now. Every decision can change the whole way things will pan out."

Bill sank back into her chair, thinking over his response with a frown. The Doctor set a hand heavily on the desk and glanced toward the TARDIS.

"I'll tell you what. A friend of mine wants me to pay him a visit. It's not too far, just a galaxy or two. You can come with me," he said, his smile turning sad again. "Get away for a little while."

Bill quirked her eyebrow. "You really enjoy making Nardole cross, don't you?"

"It's practically my hobby. You wanna come?"

Bill smirked. "As if I'd say no."

They both arrived at the TARDIS doors at the same time. As the Doctor rushed in, Bill put a hand on the wooden frame. "Hey, Doctor," she said, entering the ship. "What's the planet called?"

The Doctor took hold of a red lever. "New New Earth." He pulled down the lever, forcing Bill to grab onto the railing to keep from toppling over. "You can see how humanity turns out."

Bill smiled, letting her chest fill with hope. "So we do make it! Hold on-New New Earth? What happened to the first one?"

The Doctor waved wildly with one hand as his other typed frantically into the Console. "Oh, humans are everywhere out there; building colonies, putting up shops."

"I like shops."

A twinkle shone in the Doctor's eye. "Me too."


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

Bill found New New Earth to be everything she hoped it would be. High tech; sci-fi esque clothing, if a little quirky; even levitating cars. It was like a Hollywood movie set, but it was real.

"This is amazing," she said, turning slowly on the spot to take everything in. "This is really, really cool."

She turned to the Doctor, who stood with his hands in his pockets, gazing around the place with a smile. She poked his arm. "Thanks for bringing me."

"Anytime," the Doctor replied. "I better get to my friend's house. You can explore for a while, if you want."

Bill's eyes widened. "Wait, seriously?"

The Doctor nodded. "You're old enough, right? Forty or something like that?"

Bill grinned, shaking her head. "Something like that."

"Good. Just stay near the TARDIS. And keep your mobile on."

Bill waved him off. "You're getting as bad as Nardole."

The Doctor dropped his jaw and groaned. "Oh no, he's rubbing off on me."

Bill laughed. "I'll catch you later then."

"Meet me by the TARDIS around five."

"Gotcha."

The Doctor walked off down the street as Bill set her hands in her pockets, trying to hide the anxiety that was setting in as he disappeared down a nearby road.

Bill took in a deep breath. "It's all fine. Just hanging out in a city for a few hours," she assured herself. "The TARDIS is right there if we hit trouble."

Bill forced all of her fears to the back of her mind and entered what looked like a farmer's market, just a block away from the TARDIS. Aisles upon aisles of booths set up with all kinds of clothes and bracelets and curios lined the cobblestone square.

Everyone at the stalls looked to be human. In fact, in the time it took her to walk the length of two rows of aisles, she only saw one non-human, a boy with blue skin and yellow spots. He wore a hoodie and scarf even though the weather was fairly warm. He also seemed to jump out of his skin whenever anyone looked at him too long. Bill approached him carefully, smiling as kindly as she knew how.

"Hello. Are you alright?"

The boy backed abruptly into a table where a woman was selling jewelry. She glared at him until he profusely apologized and stepped away. Bill held out her hand, showing empty palms.

"I'm sorry; I didn't mean to scare you. You looked lost."

"I am lost," the boy said, hardly discernible as he spoke into his thick scarf. Bill knelt to his level.

"That's alright. I get lost all the time. I couldn't survive without my GPS."

The boy shrank further into his scarf. "I don't know what that means."

Suddenly, a burly man stepped beside Bill. "Miss, you don't wanna go consorting with his kind."

The boy dashed off before Bill could get to her feet and shout for him to stay. She looked up at the man, trying to quell the fury rising within her.

"What do you mean 'his kind'?"

The man widened his gaze in shock. "What do I mean? The boy's blue! He's one of them aliens."

"So? You must have loads of aliens living here. Hell, aren't you all technically aliens? Your ancestors came from Earth, didn't they?"

The man sighed. "That was a long time ago. But these new aliens...they ain't human. They ain't anything like human. They've got different DNA; even the scientists admit it."

Bill just shook her head, clicking her teeth. "Listen, where I come from, we've got people just like you. Leave the poor kid alone. I bet if your family and friends heard how you talk, they wouldn't like it."

"Wouldn't like it?" The man laughed horribly. "The whole bleedin' world's agreed that these invaders need to leave, sweetheart."

He pointed to the wall of a nearby building, where three separate posters glued to the brick spelled out blatant anti-alien propaganda. Bill blinked back tears.

"That's...that's what the human race comes to. After all that time...we just go off into space and do the same bloody thing." Bill put a hand to her mouth and leaned against the wall, trying not to break down. Something was nagging at the back of her mind; some reason she couldn't fall apart right now. "Oh my God."

Bill stood shakily and wiped furiously at her eyes. "Oh my God; the Doctor."

She looked into the mass of stalls, filled with people she now felt only anger toward. She was afraid. Behind the stalls stood an entire sprawling city, silver skyscrapers and car horns included. The Doctor was in there somewhere. Bill took a deep breath.

"I'm not gonna let these pathetic humans touch you, Doctor. I've seen enough of that on my own planet."

Bill set off through the network of tables and goods, ignoring all of the shoulders she brushed against and their owners' cries of outrage.


	3. Chapter 3

**Note: This chapter has a scene with pretty intense bullying/xenophobia that might mirror some real life situations. Please enjoy, as I promise it isn't TOO intense, but use discretion if necessary.**

Chapter Three

New New Earth was almost just how the Doctor remembered it. Almost.

The streets were filled with people, a thriving metropolis. Above them glided hover cars of varying shapes and sizes, most of them driven by easily perturbed citizens. The shops and advertisements lit up in front of his eyes like Christmas displays, though on this planet it would have been something closer to the spring than the winter season.

But something was off. Everyone looked too...similar. The Doctor glanced around the people he passed on the sidewalk, analyzing. Three humans walking with their two human children. Another human-only couple. One elderly Atlantisian man, his whiskers and water tank stashed beneath a black jacket.

Where were all of the aliens? All of the interspecies families he'd seen happily starting their lives here? Where was the wonderful mixture of languages from seven different galaxies, all blending and mixing just so everyone could understand each other while still keeping family secrets?

The Doctor turned the corner, to a quieter road away from the crowds. Here, the purple trees planted in small boxes along the curb distracted him for a moment. He let himself slow down and quite literally smell the roses, violet and blooming in their prime.

"Oi!" He heard the exclamation from behind him, but didn't turn. It sounded like a teenage boy, probably jabbing on with his friends.

A second later, a hand roughly pulled him around to face the young man, as well as his two cronies. A small pack of seventeen year olds. The tallest, the one who'd grabbed his shoulder, held what looked like a scanner aimed toward his chest. The scanner beeped, and the boy turned to his friends with a sneer.

"Told you boys this thing would work," he said, showing off the device proudly. "Freak's got two hearts."

He looked at the Doctor. "You ain't fooling anyone, xeno. What? You trying to blend in or something?"

The Doctor blinked rapidly, trying to process everything at once. "Where'd you get that scanner? It seems pretty advanced for a schoolboy."

The boy took a step back, looking to his friends as if he'd just been disrespected. The Doctor felt his stomach lurch. The boy jumped forward again, right in his face this time.

"Listen here, alien. You've gotta be pretty thick to go disrespecting a fully bred human around here. I could call the coppers right now and they'd throw you in prison. Wouldn't even go to a trial."

The Doctor's mouth fell open, but no response came. Had he steered wrong? Was this not New New Earth? Or did he just remember things very, very wrongly?

"I don't want any trouble," he said. "I'm just trying to visit a friend."

The boy on the left leered, "Another one of your alien freaks?"

The Doctor's cheeks flushed, eyebrows furrowing. "Did your parents teach you to speak like that?"

The tallest boy grabbed the Doctor by the shoulder again, this time pushing him against the wall of the closest building. The Doctor's hearts started hammering in his chest as he took in the three young humans surrounding him.

"Yeah, they did. And they taught us what to do when aliens went disrespecting us, too," the tallest boy said.

A moment later, his fist connected with the Doctor's abdomen, knocking the wind out of him. As soon as he stopped seeing stars, the Doctor straightened himself out, regaining his breath.

"Please, just let me go find my friend and I'll get out of your hair."

The shorter boy on the left approached him. "Not likely."

The boy reached up and pulled the Doctor's arms behind his back with painful strength. The other two youths stood in front of him, and suddenly the other short boy kicked his shin, hard enough to make him cry out and fall to his knees.

The taller boy stood over him, smiling in a way that made the Doctor almost sorry for him. How had humanity fallen so far even as he watched over them all?

The taller boy raised a fist, and the Doctor felt his hearts race even faster. "You don't have to do this. I'm not a threat to you."

"Not yet. What happens when we have to give our jobs to you lot? What happens when you bring your diseases into the city?"

The Doctor shrugged, as much as he could. "Everyone adjusts in time and finds new ways of carrying on?"

The fist met his brow, and he was dazed on the ground before he even felt the pain. When he did, his face blushed a deep red, and his shaky hands hardly held him a few inches off of the concrete. Above him, he could sense the boys still watching him like vultures.

But even as he felt blood trickling down his cheek, he could only feel remorse. Perhaps he wasn't doing as much as he'd thought to help humanity, and to help the universe as a whole.

"Get up, alien."

"Come on, old man."

The Doctor blinked, trying to focus, but his vision was still blurred round the edges, his movements awkward and muscles shaking from the sudden shock of it all.

Suddenly, a voice came, like an angel.

"Oi! Get the hell away from him!"

The Doctor heard three pairs of footsteps rushing away and one pair rushing toward him. He turned his head up as far as he could, his body still lying awkwardly on its side against the wall. Bill crouched beside him and put a comforting hand on his shoulder.

"Doctor, are you alright?" She asked, looking him over anxiously. He pushed himself off the ground with a fake smile.

"I'm fine," he said, just before his hand slipped from under him and his face almost met the ground. Bill caught him at the last second, then pulled him into a seated position against the wall.

"You're not 'fine', liar." She kept a steadying hand on him, just in case he decided to fall over again. His eyes were dangerously out of focus. "Who were those idiots?"

The Doctor tried to glance in the direction they'd run off to, but winced as pain flashed from the wound on his head. He shut his eyes with a gasp.

"Nevermind," Bill said, glancing around herself. "Come on, we gotta get you to a safer spot. Somewhere we won't get mugged. What are you doing in an alley anyway?"

"I can ask you the same question," the Doctor said, struggling to find his footing. Bill put his arm around her shoulder and they stumbled into some kind of rhythm together, her taking most of his weight. Her arms ached before they reached the next street.

"Well, I found anti-alien propaganda. Figured I should check on you." Bill looked him over, noting the limp in his walk and the blood still dripping down his face. "Good thing I did, too."

He didn't respond, even as they walked down two other streets to a quieter but more brightly lit and open area of town. Bill eased him onto the stone steps in front of a statue and then sank beside him.

"You're heavier than you look, you know," she said, trying to lighten the mood. She turned and found him staring at the ground. Softly, she nudged his knee with her own. "Hey, you alright?"

Not a second later, the Doctor grabbed her into the biggest hug she'd ever had, his arms locking her in a white-knuckle grip. Bill was stunned for a second, unsure of what to do, but her hands eventually found their way to his back. His body shuddered beneath her, and she realized with an aching chest that he was choking back waves of crying.

"Okay...okay. I've got you," she said, rubbing his back. She felt a bit of wetness fall onto her neck, and tears pricked into her own eyes. "I know. I know how it feels," she said with an unsteady voice.

The Doctor seemed to better control himself at that, turning up to Bill with pink-rimmed eyes. He swallowed hard. "I wish you didn't. No one should. No one should go through that."

He sat up; took a deep breath. "Sorry. I needed to hide my face for a minute."

Bill gave him a tiny smile. "It's fine. Really." Her smile faltered into deep rooted concern. "Seriously, though, are you okay?"

The Doctor took a slow, deep breath before responding. "Yes. Yes, I'm alright. Sometimes…" He paused, looking down at his twitchy hands. "Sometimes the world just gets to be a bit too much."

Bill wrapped her arm under his and leaned her head on his shoulder. "Yeah."

They stayed like that for another ten minutes, watching the hover cars float past and the pedestrians stroll along the pavement.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four

"Did you ever get to see your friend?"

The Doctor's eyes widened, as if he'd completely forgotten the reason they were here. "No, I didn't."

Bill checked her phone for the time. "It's not too late. Do you want to see if he's still home?"

The Doctor thought this over for a second, and then nodded in agreement. "He wouldn't have called me if it weren't important."

Bill helped the Doctor to his feet, but as soon as he was up, he nudged her away. Right; now he was feeling a bit better, he was going to pretend that last twenty minutes had never happened. Bill looked him over with a caring eye anyway.

"You've still got that cut," she said, pointing at the red mark just above his brow.

The Doctor instinctively brought a hand up to examine it, gasping as he made contact with the wound. He lowered his hand and forced a stoic expression when Bill gave him large, worried eyes.

"It's fine. It'll be healed before we get to the TARDIS."

His words did little to calm Bill's mind, especially as he limped all the way to his friend's front door. As he knocked, he barely contained a grimace. Bill could practically see the headache he was fighting.

The door opened and a gentle man in a green cardigan leaned his face out. When he saw the Doctor, bleeding and leaning awkwardly on his leg, his face fell.

"Oh my goodness, Doctor! Come in; come in." He ushered the Doctor and Bill inside and then shut the door. "What happened?"

The man forced the Doctor onto his couch, a ragged but comfortable old three-seater, and hurried to the open kitchen connected to the lounge. The Doctor sat up a bit straighter, grunting as his leg shifted.

"Met a few kids who weren't too fond of aliens. Do you know what's going on around here? Last I saw, there were dozens of species living in harmony together. Or maybe I got the century wrong."

The other man came back into the lounge carrying a wet cloth and a roll of bandages. He bit his lip, and then looked at Bill with a smile. "Hello; I don't believe we've met."

Bill smiled and waved. "I'm Bill."

The man set his supplies down and shook her hand with both of his. "Yaro Cotter. Please, sit."

Bill took a seat opposite the Doctor.

"Yaro," the Doctor said, making the man bite his lip again. "You never answered my question."

Yaro nervously picked up the cloth and dabbed it on the Doctor's head. The Doctor grabbed it immediately and held it there himself. Yaro folded his hands together.

"Humans here...well, we've regressed. I suppose now, since we aren't travelling or exploring or fighting wars...people got bored. Started turning on each other. Limited resources, traditional capitalism reinstated. It's been a mess."

Yaro held up a pointer finger, his face lighting up. "But that's actually why I called you here. You see," he said, sitting on the arm of the sofa. "I'm forming a group, to counteract all of the violence and hatred. There are a few dozen of us already; some human, some alien. We're trying to spread the word: peace is in; division is out!"

He chuckled a bit at his mantra. The Doctor and Bill shared a smile.

"I was hoping that maybe, with your TARDIS or just your incomparable genius...maybe you could help me recruit more people."

Yaro's smile faded. "I didn't think...you appear human enough; I thought they'd leave you alone."

The Doctor lowered the cloth, examining it with lowered brows. "Apparently the boy I met had a scanner. Saw the two hearts and it kick-started his imagination."

Yaro's frown deepened. "I am sorry, Doctor. If I'd known…"

"It's not your fault." The Doctor smiled. "And I'm glad I came. We'd love to help."

He looked to Bill for confirmation. Of course, she smiled widely. "I'm all about starting revolutions against arseholes," she said.

The Doctor raised an eyebrow. Bill rolled her eyes. "I'm just calling them what they are."

The trio laughed heartily together, and then Yaro adjusted himself on the sofa.

"Do you two have any tips? Doctor, you always seem so good at these things."

The Doctor looked to Bill. "First tip," he started. "Surround yourself with good, amazing people."

Bill smiled and looked at her hands, but picked her head back up to speak. "Also," she said. "Stay optimistic. There's always someone out there who isn't bad. How else would the world keep turning?"

Yaro took in their words with the attention of an avid A-level student.

The Doctor turned back to Yaro. "And third; never, ever give up."

Yaro nodded. "Thank you so much, Doctor. And Bill. I hope we can meet again in happier times."

The Doctor got to his feet, a lot more steadier than before. "We'll help make them happier times, Yaro. And, er, until then...did you have any fliers I could borrow? Maybe a couple hundred or so?"

Yaro's eyes widened. "I think I have about thirty around here somewhere."

The Doctor smiled. "Perfect."


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

The Doctor and Bill sat with their legs dangling out of the TARDIS doors, looking over New New Earth rotating below. Every so often, the Doctor would toss a flier from the small stack of papers sat in between them, letting it flutter down to the planet below. As he threw another, Bill creased her eyebrows.

"Won't it just burn in the atmosphere?"

The Doctor pointed up at the TARDIS ceiling. "I stretched the atmospheric shield down to the surface. The planet might have a bit of weird weather for a day or two, but it shouldn't make a difference."

Bill eagerly picked up another flier and tossed it out into space. The Doctor watched as her bright smile faded.

"Are you okay?"

She kicked her feet, as if trying to generate joy. "Yeah. I just wish...I wish the world had more people like Yaro. Then, well, I guess then we wouldn't need a whole lot of people like Yaro if that makes sense."

"It does," the Doctor said. Bill picked her head up and found her tutor wearing one of his unreadable expressions. This one was somewhere between contemplation and frustration. "If everyone could just get along, no one would have to step up and be a hero. We wouldn't need people to make enormous sacrifices or take risks. If every military stood down, we wouldn't need militaries at all. But if just one military exists…"

"Then the whole world has to take arms," Bill finished for him.

The Doctor let out a shaky breath, and for the second time that day, Bill leaned her head on his shoulder. He closed his eyes and leaned his own head on the door frame, letting the lull of the TARDIS nearly rock him to sleep.

Then the Console phone started ringing, shrill and utterly annoying.

The Doctor groaned, but got to his feet. Bill trailed after him and watched with tired eyes as he picked up the phone from next to the red lever.

"Yes? What is it?"

"Sir?"

It was Nardole. The Doctor tried not to groan again.

"Sir, I think you'll want to come see this."

He sounded much more chipper than he usually did when the Doctor ran off without telling him. The Doctor didn't trust that.

"Are you going to shout this time? I don't like the shouting. That's my job."

He could hear Nardole's frown at that.

"Actually, sir, River left that job to me. But anyway, I'm not going to shout. Just come to the caff."

"The caff?"

Bill quirked an eyebrow at that. The Doctor shrugged, and then hung up the phone, instantly dialling in a few numbers.

"What's happening?" Bill asked, dancing along the controls just behind the Doctor.

"No idea; but Nardole sounded happy. Too happy."

He entertained hope, but pushed it away. Knowing Nardole, they'd probably just added his disgusting 'invention' of a drink to the menu. Honestly, who puts coffee in tea?

The TARDIS landed just outside of the mess hall. The Doctor and Bill emerged to the sound of cheering coming from inside. They pushed through the doors to find a large mob of students surrounding the register. Nardole turned from the outskirts of this crowd and smiled at them.

"What's going on?" Bill shouted over another delighted shout from the crowd. Nardole edged closer to his companions.

"Someone started a pay-it-forward this morning and now it's been going on for hours," he explained.

Bill lit up, and even the Doctor let one of his rare, bright smiles shine through.

. . . . .

Ten minutes and a long line later, the Doctor and Bill sat on one of the uncomfortable benches with a basket of chips and two drinks in front of them. Bill lifted one of the yellow chips up as she watched a few students join the line, and then turned to the Doctor.

"We never got back to our lesson."

He wiped some salt from his hands onto a napkin. "You're right. Thermodynamics was it?"

Bill nodded, and the Doctor finished swallowing the chip he was working on. He cleared his throat.

"The basic premise is this: when two things that are different temperatures come close to each other, they'll want to help each other get to equilibrium."

Bill looked from her drink to the chip basket. "So like when I put a chip," she picked up one of the still steaming chips. "Near my Coke." She touched the chip to the side of the cool cup. "And the chip gets colder and the drink gets warmer."

The Doctor nodded, proud. "Exactly. There are a few equations, but we'll sort that out later."

Bill went back to eating as the Doctor's eyes glazed over into space, deep in thought.

"When the world goes cold, all it needs is a little bit of warmth." Bill looked up from her chips, eyes as filled with as much awe as one can have with their mouth full of chips. The Doctor met her eyes. "Kindness is how the universe finds equilibrium."

Bill nodded, covering her mouth with the back of her hand and swallowing. Suddenly, a figure appeared in front of them.

"You say the darndest things sometimes." It was Nardole again. He sat across from them, setting down a tray of his own chips and soda. "Makes me forget how silly you can be."

The Doctor smiled softly until Nardole held a chip up toward him threateningly.

"Don't think I haven't seen that, by the way." Nardole motioned toward the healing cut on the Doctor's brow. It had mostly disappeared, but there was still a thin pink line unmissable for someone with as keen an eye as Nardole.

"You're not my mother," the Doctor quipped. Nardole dropped the chip back into its basket and took a sip of his drink. Bill could've laughed at the faces they gave each other. Honestly, having a row while they ate chips and sipped on sugary drinks didn't make them look respectable in any way.

"Nardole, just leave it this time," she said, turning a serious eye to the Doctor. "He's had a rough day."

Something about her expression struck Nardole. "Did something happen? What are you not telling me?"

The Doctor leaned back, taking a slow breath. "There were some silly humans who had silly ideas about aliens."

Nardole's jaw dropped. "Sir; are you alright?"

The Doctor held up a hand. "I'm fine; honestly, please stop worrying. It's nauseating." He looked to Bill, and then to the growing line of students, still paying for each other's food and cheering each other on. "Let's just say the universe found its equilibrium again."

Bill smiled, and Nardole returned to his chips with just one more confused but satisfied look. The Doctor looked around the room one last time with a smile. He was surrounded by friends, he worked at a school with good people, and he knew that somewhere in the universe, on a little future planet not unlike this one, one man and his friends were changing their world for the better. Even if times were bleak, somehow the Doctor knew everything would turn out alright.


End file.
